London Spitfire release birdring, Guard, NUS and JFeel

London Spitfire's announcement sees an exodus of players from their Overwatch team following the conclusion of the OWL Season 2 Playoffs as players enter the long break between seasons.

DPS players Ji-hyeok "birdring" Kim, Hee-dong "Guard" Lee and support Jong-seok "NUS" Kim have been released in addition to coach Jeong-min "Jfeel" Kim. While Guard was a relative newcomer to the Spitfire roster, both birdring and NUS had been with the team since 2017 and were Season 1 Champions.

JFeel was released on 1st October after two years with London Spitfire and put out a Tweet suggesting that the decision hadn't stemmed from any controversy or drama behind the scenes.

Following their crowning as Overwatch League Season 1 Champions last year, the pressure was on London Spitfire to repeat their performance again in 2019. Only Stage 2 saw London in playoffs during the regular season, where they finished 5-8th with a loss in their quarterfinal game to Hangzhou Spark 1-3.

It was San Francisco Shock that lifted the trophy as Season 2 Champions this year 4-0 over Vancouver Titans, while London Spitfire had to settle for an early exit with the same scoreline against the eventual champions in the lower bracket.

Season 2 saw the addition of the 2-2-2 rule during Stage 4 that killed the dominant GOATS meta that had come to define competitive Overwatch and no amount of buffs and nerfs could kill the powerful team composition.